“This is an occasion that runs deep through my soul — another Sheff magnet school,” Elizabeth Horton Sheff told a crowd gathered this week for the groundbreaking for RiverTech at Goodwin University, billed as Connecticut’s first technology magnet school.
RiverTech will teach elements of business, entrepreneurship and technology, with an emphasis on new technology. Artificial intelligence, machine learning, cybersecurity, computer science and advanced manufacturing are among the areas of concentration, and the school is building partnerships with major Connecticut manufacturers so it can offer internships and pre-apprenticeships.
Goodwin will begin serving freshmen in the fall, and plans to complete an ultra-modern, 90,000-square-foot, four-story building next year that will serve all four grades.
“There’s no other building like it in the United States. On the fourth floor is our international space station. It will be a replica of the surface of Mars that our students will walk as astronauts while their classmates will be ‘mission control,’ helping them navigate the surface and making sure they’re doing their science experiments,” Superintendent Salvatore Menzo said at the ceremony.